


The Found and The Lost

by Scytale



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: 3 Sentence Ficathon, Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:35:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23624734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scytale/pseuds/Scytale
Summary: After the Time War, the Doctor gets a dog.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	The Found and The Lost

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 3 Sentence Ficathon, for the prompt "Daniel the golden retriever".

After Gallifrey, the Doctor is content to travel alone — he doesn't think he'll ever want another companion.  
  
But he meets Daniel in the middle of foiling a Kraal plot to take over the Earth. Daniel’s just a puppy, only a few months old, with big paws and a soft nose and a tail that doesn’t stop wagging when he sees the Doctor, even though the Doctor failed to save his humans. When the Doctor picks him up, Daniel wriggles and leaves slobbery licks all over the Doctor’s jacket.  
  
The Doctor smiles.  
  
He tries to take Daniel to a shelter — he’s not much of a dog person this incarnation, and anyway, the TARDIS is no place to raise a dog. But when he tries to leave Daniel behind, Daniel whines, his eyes forlorn and sad.  
  
So the Doctor gives in and buys a dog bed.  
  
Daniel turns out to be surprisingly well suited to a life traveling time and space. He gets used to the TARDIS fast, and the Doctor gets used to having him there, curled up on his dog bed in the console room; when she starts traveling, he howls along with her, his tail thumping happily. Daniel loves going for walks under alien skies, loves all the sights and smells they encounter — and his happy doggy grin wins admirers everywhere they go.  
  
Sometimes, when they're alone, the Doctor tells him stories. Daniel's easy to talk to. He doesn’t judge and he doesn’t ask questions — he just curls up and listens, his eyes dark and solemn.  
  
The Doctor tells Daniel about Gallifrey, about necessity and guilt and other things. He tells him stories of the companions he’s traveled with, and when those stories turn into stories of loss and his voice falters, Daniel puts a paw on the Doctor’s arm to comfort him.  
  
Sometimes, he thinks Daniel might understand more than just the tone of his voice — that he might understand as well as a dog can. Sometimes, the Doctor cries.  
  
They save the world a few times. And all across the vast expanse of time and space, Daniel makes people smile.  
  
But one day the Doctor is forced to admit what he knew all along — a dog's life is even shorter than a human's. Daniel’s stiffer than he used to be, slower; he can’t keep up as well as he used to, and the Doctor thinks he shouldn’t have to.  
  
So, the Doctor heads back to Earth and finds Daniel a new home with a family he saved from the Cybermen. They owe him, and they like Daniel already; the Doctor knows they’ll give his dog a good home.  
  
Daniel’s anxious barks follow him all the way to the TARDIS. When he looks back at the house, he sees Daniel, staring after him in the window.  
  
He tells himself it’s the right thing to do. He thinks about the kind of life Daniel will lead — a life with squirrels to bark at and other dogs to sniff and a home that’s exactly the same size on the inside. It's the kind of life a dog should lead — a life lived in continuous time, beneath a single planet’s sky, surrounded by a family that won't leave.  
  
He tells himself that, but he can’t shake the memory of Daniel’s desperate barks, of the confused betrayal in his eyes as he watched the Doctor go.  
  
The Doctor sticks to human companions after that.


End file.
